Whatever It Takes
by VerelLupin
Summary: The Queen took him from Emma but Graham will do whatever it takes to get back to her. Does Emma have what it takes to make the impossible possible and find Graham again? And how will this affect the battle for Storybrooke?
1. A Way Back

**I just had to write this. I hope that they'll bring him back but I'm not holding my breath. **

**I have no idea where I am going with this.  
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**Enjoy...**

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><p>It had been exactly two days since Graham's funeral.<p>

Henry's real mother had been the only dry eye at the gravesite as the sheriff's coffin was lowered into the dewy ground. Jiminy whispered that it was shock but Henry thought it was heartbreak.

Graham had confessed that he kissed her and Henry knew from just looking at her, that Graham had given her true love's first kiss.

Regina had put an elaborate spray of a dozen red roses on his coffin while Emma guided by Mary Margaret laid a single white rose among the gaudy red.

The crowd had dispersed and Henry has been forced away barely able to wave at Emma goodbye. Not that it made a difference in her shocked state. Mary took a hold of her and she was led away shrinking into herself like a puppet with its strings cut off.

Later that night Henry swallowed the lump in his throat and he picked up his fairy tale book. He read it carefully cover to cover looking for a way to give his mother a happy ending but the book was useless. Even magic couldn't bring back the dead.

Henry set the book aside angry that he'd put Graham in danger. He was angry that he had not been able to warn them or help the huntsman more and that the Queen had killed the only chance his mother would have to be happy.

Unless she succeeded and she finished the battle but even with that Henry wasn't sure if Graham would be alive in the enchanted forest.

Exhausted he went to sleep and for the first time he didn't dream of a better place.

Instead he had nightmares that the other world didn't exist and that this was really all there was. He dreamt of Emma leaving and Snow and Charming living apart and miserable for the rest of their lives and him alone with no one but the Queen as company.

"Henry…Henry… find me…"

Henry woke up with a start at the sound but there was no one in the room but himself. He turned in an attempt to try to sleep but a bright light caught his attention. He hadn't slept with a nightlight since he was four and the curiosity to find the source of the light pulled him from his bed.

The source was easy to find in the otherwise dark room and he was very surprised to see that it came from his book. Excitement coursed through his veins as he began to flip through the pages until his hand stopped on the glowing one.

It was the picture he'd shown Graham two days ago but it had changed. The wolf and forest were there like before thought they were muted but much more detailed than they had been before but that wasn't what made him gasp in shock.

The huntsman stood out in sharp relief then something strange happened. The figure began to brighten and fill in as if some invisible hand was drawing in its features. The features morphed until it was so obvious who it was, that the illustration could have been a photograph.

Graham waved his hand and walked over to the tree that the wolf had been blocking. The picture moved and focused on the tree. "You're in the enchanted forest, aren't you?" Henry asked.

The illustrated figure nodded and then he moved out the way so as to show the message he'd carved on the tree. "Take me to Emma." Henry read out loud.

Henry closed the book with a snap and the light faded by the time he'd put on shoes. He slipped out to the staircase and descended as quietly as he could. He was halfway to front door when it dawned on him that he couldn't leave the house at three in the morning.

She would know for sure and that could put Operation Cobra in jeopardy and he couldn't risk that no matter how badly he wanted Emma to know about Graham. Defeated he went back to bed but before he set foot on the stairs he thought of his teacher. He could call Mary Margaret and get her to come to him instead.

Mary was more than a little groggy as she shuffled into her kitchen and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"You have to come here." Henry's voice said in a rush. "Graham is here and he needs to talk to my mom…um to Emma right away. I can't leave cause then the Queen will know that he's back and she'll find a way to make him go away for sure."

"Henry, Graham is gone. He was buried a few days ago remember?"

"Yeah but that was only here in this land. He was sent back to the enchanted forest and the only way to see him is in the book or until mom breaks the spell. He was just talking to me right now."

"Oh Henry. I wish that were true…"

"But it is true. Please believe me, if you come you can see it for yourself but you have to hurry I don't know how much longer he can be there."

Mary Margaret sighed but promised to drive over there as soon as she got dressed. Thankfully she got there less than ten minutes later and he was waiting at the front door to hand her the book. "Don't look until Emma's gotten the message."

Mary Margaret nodded and went home sure that Henry was becoming unhealthily occupied with this curse thing. She was going to have to talk to Emma and Archie as soon as she got a chance. This kind of thing could really hurt him if left unchecked.

Mary closed the front door behind her and debated whether she should bother Emma with this right now. The other woman hadn't been sleeping well and had woken Mary several times screaming for Graham to wake up, and this new delusion wouldn't help to make her feel better.

She put the book on the counter ready to go back to bed and sleep as much as she could before getting ready for school in the morning but for some reason Henry's anxious little face came to her mind.

She took a deep breath and picked up the book and approached the room where Emma was. Hoping that she wasn't making a horrible mistake, she entered, turned on the light and tapped the sleeping woman softly, "Emma, wake up. I need you to wake up."

Emma rolled and turned to her supposed mother. "Whatssamatter?"

"Here." She said and handed the book to Emma. "Henry called me right now." Seeing the look of alarm on Emma's face she tried to explain herself better. "He's fine but he said you needed to see this right away and I just couldn't say no."

"He called you at three in the morning because I needed to see his storybook?" Emma asked confused.

"He said it's about Graham." Mary Margaret opened the book to the page Henry had instructed her to and left Emma alone with it. She was in the kitchen about to make coffee when she heard the thump of the book and then the unmistakable sound of a body dropping to the ground.

She rushed back up the stairs and found Emma sitting on the floor with the book facedown beside her. Terrified Mary Margaret ran to her side and shook her. "Emma, are you ok? What happened?"

Emma snapped out of the trance she'd been in and pointed shakily to the book. "Read it."

Mary pulled it to her and turned it right side up. There on the page next to a figure that looked remarkably like the former sheriff was a tree with a message marked on it. "Emma, I remembered. Don't let her win. Don't let Regina win."

"Graham?" Mary Margaret said and touched the illustration then the figure vanished.

"Graham is alive," Emma said then began to cry.


	2. Message In The Woods

**I love...love the season finale. A Spoiler Alert ***** Rumbelle had me squealing with joy but I totally freaked out my cat when I saw Graham again. (Please let him come back via pink cloud.)****** **

**Anyway that gave me the swift kick in the pants I needed. Now this story is Gremma but I will include August for fun jealous reasons but I don't ship them. I will also include Jefferson (Cause he is awfully hot, ships Rumbelle and he is the Mad Hatter, of course) and he will get his own happy little story too and of course some Rumbelle though Gremma owns my heart.**

**So enjoy...I did take some liberties with this scene.  
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><p>She reached out tentatively and he waited.<p>

She looked up and he almost buckled at the frightened woman peaking out through her blue eyes. He wanted so badly to reassure her that she should never fear opening up to him. That he would never let her trust be misplaced and that all her love was reciprocated ten times over but she had to make the first step. It had to be her choice to get involved with him.

He didn't have the courage to do it and be denied. And he knew if it ever came down to her or him to have to die to beat the Queen, that he would gladly end it rather than see Emma hurt. She was too important and he'd suffer whatever he had to, to stay by her side and protect her.

Tears were caught on her lashes and he smiled at the knowledge that as long as he was alive, Emma Swan would never shed any more unless it was out of happiness, as it was now.

Her nose gently brushed his and Graham felt her breath rush out of her mouth and into him, giving him the kiss of life he so desperately needed. She hesitated for a fraction of a second then grazed his mouth with hers.

The touch sent magic skittering through his body and all his senses lit up in recognition of its mate. Her slim hands slid up his chest and as their kiss deepened and her arms wrapped around him, he let himself be drowned in the very essence that was Emma.

The visions that came weren't erratic this time, they were full scenes of his fairy tale life flashing before his eyes. The woods and his brother wolf. The tavern and the fight and being pulled by the Queen's black guards. Her orders and his walk through the woods with Snow. Snow offering him an apple then hitting him as she realized who he was. Her tear stained face and giving up. Reading her letter and raising the knife, lowering it and telling her to run. The Queen ripping out his heart.

He took a breath and kissed Emma back determined to end the nightmare his life had become and new images emerged, scenes of his Storybrooke life. Seeing her bring Henry back, pulling her out of her crashed bug. Her smiling skeptically as he told her about the Queen's cider. Arresting her in her room and taking her picture. The look of suspicion when he offered her a donut. The look of disappointment and disgust outside Regina's house. The anger after he kissed her the next night. His brother wolf greeting him by his squad car. The confrontation with Regina in the cemetery and smile of happiness on Emma's face when he broke it off and now her standing before him puzzled.

The onslaught of the two lives merging knocked him backward against the desk and he shook his head while the visions faded. "I remember." He said in wonder, "I remember."

Emma stared at him, her face showing love and concern for him all mixed together. He slowly walked back to her and cupped her worried face. "Thank you," he said.

She smiled nervously and Graham leaned forward to kiss her without any more interruptions, without any more emptiness and with a mind clear of Regina and full of the love he'd been missing for twenty-eight years. Their breaths mingled as his dark head bent and pressed close to her blonde one then the pain happened.

**'No, not now…Not when I'm so close. Please.' **He pleaded as the pressure mounted and spread.

His plea went unanswered and he lost his breath and balance and collapsed against Emma. She tried to catch him but the bulk of his body and the contortions it was going through were too much for her alone and they hit the desk and collapsed to the floor.

"Graham! Graham!" Emma yelled rolling his head onto her lap and trying to keep his gaze on her.

He gulped air and clenched his eyes but the crushing force inside his chest stole all the oxygen he struggled to breath in. "No, Graham! Help me, somebody help me," she screamed around the empty station.

Her voice sounded so far away and he longed to look upon her one last time but he understood as his body grew heavier and his vision blurrier why he'd seen his lives now. He understood why he'd felt so drawn to her. She cried his name and shook him and he knew in that moment that he, Sheriff Graham, the Queen's former huntsman, was meant to break her heart.

The hollowness he'd felt all his life was not the curse working on him. That had been the Queen's doing, his unhappy ending would be to go to his grave knowing that he'd smashed the last protection of Emma's heart. The curse had used him to leave her vulnerable to the Queen's scheming which would lead to more heartache and that would ultimately lead to Emma's defeat.

**'I protected you once. I will do so once more.'**

He pushed at the pain with all he had and managed to grab her hand one last time. Her cries were startled into silence and he uttered, "I…love…you."

He had given up his heart to help Snow White once and now he'd give up his life to help her daughter. He'd never had his own story and its happy ending and it appeared that he never would. But at least he'd helped the Savior before her birth and now his death hopefully would fuel her hatred of Regina's evil, dissolve the veil that clouded her mind and break the curse on Storybrooke.

"Graham! No. I…lo-" but he didn't hear anymore as the magic of his world finally crushed his heart into dust and sucked him into the darkness.

The first thing Graham noticed when he opened his eyes was the dark. It was everywhere. Above him and below him and everywhere in between, the next thing was the heaviness of his limbs and head as he stirred to look around him.

His fingers crumbled the dirt around him until he was able to lift a hand to the where the sky was supposed to be. He felt the cold on his fingertips and pushed his way through. A pocket of white penetrated the darkness he was in and inch by excruciating inch; he climbed out of the dark earth.

He used the nearby strands of grass to yank himself forward and as far from the hole as his tired body could pull him. He laid on his belly for a few moments to catch his breath then rolled painfully onto his back.

The blue sky was visible in patches through the forest he found himself in and he was glad of it wide and welcoming breeze. A warm snout nuzzled his forehead and blue eyes studied black and red ones. "Hello brother."

The wolf pushed the huntsman's head to the side with his nose and it gingerly opened its maw until he could firmly grip the edge of his fur-trimmed cloak. It dragged him from the crater he'd emerged from just in time to save his human brother from being pulled back as the entrance back to the enchanted forest and its magic collapsed instantly and began filling in with everything in its immediate vicinity.

The Huntsman patted his wolf companion in gratitude and the wolf snorted again then licked the wounded man with long laps. Graham laughed and pushed the animal away as more and more light began to pierce the trees as the day wore on.

His animal sibling gripped him again and dragged him to a circle surrounded by tall majestic trees. A cave that could have been one of his old dens was just beyond them but the wolf did not pull him further. "So I am to stay here, am I?"

The animal nudged him and the Huntsman scooted as best as he could into the very center of the trees. He waited but nothing happened until his companion began howling. In the distance more howls joined the solitary animal by his side and the trees began to sway.

The Huntsman looked up as more wolves appeared in between every tree, each one howling louder and louder until it felt like the sound was coming from inside him. It was then he acknowledged what they wanted him to do.

He lay and imagined the life he could have had with Emma, he pictured holding her in those moments that he hadn't known would be his last and the sound ripped out of his throat in long pain filled howl that came from the very tip of his soul and fractured heart.

The ground shook underneath his bruised and battered body and heated until he howled for mercy. The scorching heat cooled to a warm caress that entered his boots and climbed through his every nerve ending and healed all the damage of the journey from one world to another. The energy abated and he chuckled dryly knowing that his home had fixed the damage done by the Queen's killing blow.

Shakily he rose from the ground and took in his new surroundings. Nothing but trees and green leaves and his wolf brethren were in sight. Storybrooke was officially gone from his reach and sheer joy raced through him.

He was home.

He was back home among his kin and hearth and away from the fake shell that his life under Regina's clutches had been but then a face flashed before him. A pale heart shaped face framed by blonde silky waves and gifted with stark blue eyes and a mouth that never got to finish its confession.

Despair washed over him. He was home but Emma would never share it. His Emma was gone from him and the ache that was all that remained of his horrible demise, at the hands of the Queen, throbbed with every beat of his lonely heart.

The wolf nudged him and the huntsman began the long trek back to his real home and maybe a way back to find her. If there was a portal to bring him here, there had at to be a portal to take him back there.

The midday sun splayed overhead and he grew tired and unbearably warm with the multiple layers of fur he now wore. He'd forgotten the sheer weight of such clothing and for a moment he missed the vest and shirt and pants of his last life. He sighed and stopped to strip off a few layers and shoved them in the sack that hung across his back.

His stomach growled and he realized that it been many hours since he'd last eaten. In fact the last thing he remembered was half a donut that Ruby had brought him. He sat against a nearby tree and took off the pack that was nestled against his quiver.

He opened it but found nothing but moldy bread and a hunk of very hard cheese. Well beggars couldn't be choosers and he yanked the knife from his belt and proceeded to cut off the mold and salvage what he could of the bread.

He cut a piece of each for his companion but the animal took one whiff and shoved it away with a disgusted paw. "I'll remember that when your stomach is growling," he said and speared the two pieces and put them back in the oiled linen.

Graham finished his poor meal and continued his walk. The wolf grew agitated as they neared a grove of trees so Graham pulled his bow and notched an arrow with ease. "Where?"

The wolf growled and ran between the two largest trees. Graham followed hopping over fallen ones without any hesitation and without any of the clumsiness he had, when he had first received his memories back in Storybrooke. He guessed that his former life would soon disappear completely.

The wolf had stopped and had both front paws up on what first appeared as an ordinary looking tree. Graham looked at it closely and as he made a circle around it, he saw that it was anything but ordinary. The tree had a large hole in its middle as if it had been blown open from the inside.

He approached it and felt a trickle of magic shock him.

He looked in but no other trace of magic. "Its just a tree now," he said. The wolf shook his head and Graham examined it again. "There's nothing there. Come on let's go. It'll be dark soon and it's been awhile since I've walked through the night."

The animal whined and Graham had to forcefully grab it by its scruff but his friend had not guided him to this particular wood for no reason and he was not going give up now. He shook his head free and nipped at Graham's boots until the huntsman was forced to look at the ground.

The trees roots were completely on top of the ground. It seemed as if it had been picked by a giant hand and rested on this spot and not grown. He bent and examined the roots closer and one lifted up and wrapped lovingly around his hand.

He let it twist around his wrist until something was visible right beneath it. It was the corner of a book. A book he'd seen before.

The root urged him forward and he dug at the corner of the tree until he was able to grip the book and take it from its hiding place. It was large and square with a dark brown leather cover and stamped in gold letters was the title, "ONCE UPON A TIME."

"This is Henry's storybook."

He flipped the pages open to his own story and pressed his hand to the picture. The huntsman on the page disappeared and was replaced by scene of the tree and him kneeling in front of it as he was now. He sat and so did the figure.

Graham got up and went to the other side of the tree. He plucked his knife from his waist and carved on the unblemished side. Instantly the picture he held changed and the message appeared on the bark in bright bold letters.

"Emma, I remembered. Don't let her win. Don't let Regina win."

Now he just had to get it to Henry and have him show Emma.

"Henry…Henry…find me." He said aloud and the roots of the tree lifted all around him and encased him in their depths along with the book.


End file.
